In 1995 I wanted to find the places where I had stayed in May 1945. I met another veteran of 2nd division. I told him: I want to find the place where I stayed. He said: I know where you stayed. Because he communicated with people, I didn´t. Unfortunately. But he said: I can take you to the area. Well, next day he and his wife took my wife and me to that area and we drove around. And I could not find, I could not identify, I was looking for one specific building, which was a movie theatre, which we use with my company. I knew that it was stayed in part of buildings just down the street and I knew exactly which building I stayed in. Now I saw lady coming down the stairs and I turned to my wife and say: I know that lady. Because her features had not change so much that I could not recognize her. I said her: I´m Ingram. And she came down close to me and she said: I don´t see very well anymore. And she came realy close, she took my head in her hands, she turn my head this way, she turn it that way, she said: That´s Ingram! I was a little bit apprehensive in that time, because I realy wondered what had I done fifty years earlier that she cold not forgotten. But we had a great renew.
Each year I return. Except 1996. Of course I had seen those ladies as long as they lived and now their families and extended families and I see them each year. But the oldest passed away, she was 96. The other lady was three years younger. It was number 20 Jablonskeho Street. So each year we have Jablonskeho Street Party. We have dinner together and we did that last week.
"I wanted to go to the village where I had stayed on the demarcation line. But I could not remember the name. The elderly lady of the two, she said: 'I know where you went'. She said: 'You went to Kříše.' And I had the paper. And she wrote the name. Because some of the men who were with me and stayed in Jablonského street, while we were in Kříše, they have returned and visited her. So she knew where we were. In 1997, when I came back, I went back to that village. I used to rent a car and drive. I returned to that village many times. And part of the village in the land back toward Pilsen, it was very familiar. When I drove through Břasy it was not familiar. So it was always first in my mind. So finally, in 2002, there was an exhibition by one of the military clubs in Pilsen down at the village on the river – Nadryby. But I had persuaded another very good interpreter to go with me to that exhibition. And her name was Patricia. Patricia likes to talk. And while we parked and we were walking from the parking lot down to the ferry that we had to cross and go on the other side of the river where the exhibition was to be held, Patricia was talking to people we were walking with and she told them I was looking for the village where I stayed. And I thought it was Kříše but i wasn´t sure. So the lady said to Patricia, she said:'My father has a lot of information concerning World War II and the soldiers who were in that area at that time'. So she made an appointment to go there to visit her father a few days later. We went. Patricia went with me. And the man we met was Mr. Mudra and we began exchanging information. He would speak about events that occurred back in May 1945, I was also telling things that happened. And I told him that I cannot see the roof tops of the houses on the Russian side of demarcation line which I could see in 1945. And he just smiled and he said: 'The trees have grown up.' That was the reason I couldn´t identify exactly where I was. But I was satisfied about everything except that."
"The Ardennes offensive began on 16th of December, we had been moved north on another mission. That was the beginning of the Battle of the Bu1lge. 16th December 1944. And that battle, which is the largest land battle United States Army has ever fought either before or since, that battle lasted for approximately six weeks before the lines were restored and Germans were eliminated from the area of their penetration. And then it was moving on gradually, we got to the Rhine, we crossed the Rhine, we still did a lot of fighting, we kept moving and eventually I arrived in Pilsen."
"I arrived by ship in Scotland and by train through Scotland, across the English Channel on a very small boat, stayed on deck, at night, and I was in France, in replacement depots until I could be assigned to a regular unit. And finally, that happened in September 1944, I joined 2nd Infantry Division outside Brest. Because Brest was still being held by the Germans, but it was very much needed for a port to support the Americans in that area. Or I should say American troops who were in France, because without a logistical support soldiers can not do anything. To match our arrival with the 2nd infantry division outside Brest, the Germans surrendered Brest and 2nd division stayed in that area of assembly for a short time and then we moved by train across France through the rail-yards in Paris on to the German-Belgium border. And there we relived, and this was early October 1944, we relieved another American unit which have breached the first belt of the Siegfried line. And this unit was inside Germany. So I moved in one day from France to Belgium, Luxembourg and into Germany. It had been a short period of time. I said one day, it was actually I think two-day period."
"I told people, who have asked me: 'Why you keep returning to Pilsen each year?', and I had to think about really a short answer for that, and I think about: 'We commemorate those who were not fortunate to come back.' I have been fortunate enough, I lived to get to Pilsen and lived to return. I come to commemorate those.' But the other thing is where the joy comes and seeing all the people that i met in 1945, and now in 2013, who are finally being rewarded with what they thought they had in May of 1945. But they had it and lost it. It was up and down. Freedom – no freedom – freedom – no freedom. Now, freedom is here and I am really pleased to see the people and enjoy. And I enjoy celebrating with them. I love the people. During my service in the army, I was a career soldier, I was stationed in Germany, in Stuttgart, and my duty required me to move to the border, eventually a major unit on the border, and there were times when I would fly in a small airplane over the border down in southern part of Western Germany at that time. And I could look over the barbed fence, the lectric fence, and I could see the beautiful countryside of Czechoslovakia. I knew about the people who lived on that other side, but I never thought that I would be able to come back here. And now I am here! That was a big surprise."
"And then, In early 1940, I joined the Army. And that was a new life for me. I was a 17 years old soldier, very little pay, but I was interested, I guess I was interested in adventure, because at that time there was an effort being made to increase the size of the army. Because U.S. Army after the World War I decreased, it was very very small. But the war in Europe started really in 1938, but the first shots were really fired on 1st of September 1939 when Germans invaded Poland. So this was well known and in the backs of people´s minds, because they remembered World War I, and how the US was eventually involved in World War I, and there was talk about soldiers who were sent to fight that didn´t get proper training and so on. I guess I was thinking about adventure, training, eventually if I had to go I wanted to be trained. And also, at the same time, earlier in 1930s, Japan had invaded China. The war in Pacific had really started early in the 1930s, when Japanese invaded China. So the world was in turmoil then. But I was so young, I didn´t really think about all these things, except I heard adults speak about the war, the training and so on. I was very good target for the army to recruit, because I was interested in traveling, adventure, and all these things that were going on in Europe, those things were on back of my mind a little bit, but not much. So I was a young soldier, and joined the unit, first down in South Carolina."
Earl Ingram was born in 1922 in North Carolina, United States of America, to a family of farmers as a seventh of eight children. He left school at the age of sixteen, working as a farmhand and later getting a job in a nearby city. As he had been dreaming of travels and adventure, and he also wanted to be prepared for a possible U.S. Involvement in the upcoming military conflict, he joined the U.S. Army in the early 1940. After he had gone through the training camps in South Carolina and Minnesota, he had been assigned to Newfoundland with his unit in 1941. After spending some more time in training facilities, he went to France via Scotland with the 38th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Army 2nd Infantry Division. After a brief assignment around the city of Brest, the 38th Infantry Regiment had been moved to Belgium where it had fought in the Battle of the Bulge. After that, it fought its way through Germany to Czechoslovakia, liberating the cities of Domažlice and Plzeň (Pilsen). After 1945 demobilization, Earl Ingram decided to start a career as professional soldier and had been deployed in Germany as a part of the U.S. Army contingent in Europe. He had three children. Earl Ingram died in 2021.
Hrdinové 20. století odcházejí. Nesmíme zapomenout. Dokumentujeme a vyprávíme jejich příběhy. Záleží vám na odkazu minulých generací, na občanských postojích, demokracii a vzdělávání? Pomozte nám!
